Doxxing is bad.
So says the University of Colorado at Boulder, which quickly condemned a conservative group that recently sent a so-called “Doxxing Truck” around campus.
Accuracy in Media has sent trucks with large LED screens to various college compasses this week to highlight what it calls anti-semitism in academia.
In Boulder, the truck featured images of CU professors who made a statement in support of the killing of 1500 Israelis in the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. The truck called the professors “Boulder’s Leading Anti-Semites.”
Now, one can argue whether this is really doxxing. After all, the CU professors posted the letter to the official website of the Department of Ethnic Studies (motto: Win or Lose! Blame the Jews!).
And we don’t really know if these professors are Boulder’s leading anti-semites. For all I know, they could be just the JV squad.
Nonetheless, the university was clear in their response: “The University of Colorado Boulder condemns tactics designed to intimidate and threaten our students, faculty and staff. We will continue to support all of our students, faculty and staff and have provided resources to those who have been maliciously identified against their will.”
CU has taken swift steps to prevent student doxxing in the past. Just ask Mallory Walker.
Walker, a CU cheerleader, was doxxed in 2020 by fellow students for an ill-advised Snapchat post she made while in high school. Walker was accused of racism after posting a picture of herself saying “black ppl are trying to rape me.”
CU responded by suspending the students who doxxed Walker and issued a statement in support for the cheerleader.
Just kidding! Of course, that didn’t happen.
CU publicly dumped Walker off the team and tweeted “Racist language and actions on social media are not living the Colorado Creed.”
A similar fate befell former CU student Patryck Durham in January 2023. “Wanted” posters sprung around campus for Durham for being a Nazi activist—again for posts he made online during high school. The posters were the work of CU’s chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.
Four days after the posters appeared, Durham was no longer enrolled at the university, said spokesperson Andrew Sorensen.
So doxxing is good when it comes from the left, according to CU.
The question isn’t if Walker’s and Durham’s words were hateful. They were. The question is if their speech is protected, and their safety assured. The issue is a double standard. Need we remember Ward Churchill’s hate speech?
The solution here is obvious—targeted harassment (wanted posters) should be punished by the University of Colorado. That is, the doxxers should be the ones disciplined.
Victims of doxxing should be given special protection and support—just like CU is offering the professors from the Ethnic Studies Department when that evil billboard truck showed their photos. Denying doxxers their scalps is a sure way of shutting down the next witch hunt.
And why not have an Under 18 Amnesty Rule? Anything a CU student or faculty member does when they are in high school, middle school, elementary school or preschool should be off limits for reprisal.
After all, if saying or doing something stupid as a child is grounds for expulsion, 73% of all CU students would be kicked out. And the other 27% are just lucky what they did wasn’t filmed.
Boulder resident Jon Caldara is the president of the Independence Institute, a free market think tank.
